Transform Your City With Tactical Urbanism
If you're a public space aficionado or transportation maven, one only needs to sign on to one of the various social media feeds to see the daily movement that is sweeping across the world: groups of people are literally taking back their streets by implementing low-cost, temporary solutions to what they see as simple ways of making their streets safer or more livable.
In many cities, people have started placing traffic cones at intersections to slow turning vehicles and make drivers behave more predictably when they interact with bikes and pedestrians. In fact, many citizens have formed Twitter groups generally referred to as Departments of Transformation (DOTr) as opposed to the traditional city Department of Transportations (DOTs). These groups are showing their fellow citizens innovative visual solutions to make safer streets with quick strike executions - which sometimes only last a few hours until they are removed by their government. But each week more empowered people are deciding they are fed up and joining the movement and not waiting for their agencies to act.
Over the years, this sort of inexpensive, rapid-deployment has been known by various terms, but since around 2010 the term Tactical Urbanism has gained a lot of traction in the transportation community. And not only are we seeing some cities starting to responding positively and making some of these citizen resolutions permanent, but even outright sponsoring and sanctioning their own. So sit back and watch as we visit just a small fraction of the community making this happen!
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Clarence EckersonDirector
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Mike LydonKey CastStreet Plans Collaborative
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Doug GordonKey CastBrooklyn Spoke
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Jonathan FertigKey Cast
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Melissa BruntlettKey Cast
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Lior SteinbergKey Cast
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Project Type:Documentary, Short
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Genres:Transportation, Environmental
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Runtime:8 minutes 22 seconds
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Completion Date:July 1, 2017
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Production Budget:1,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Clarence Eckerson, Jr. is frequently referred to as “the hardest working man in transportation show biz” for his dedication to making difficult, wonky concepts more accessible and entertaining to the general public. He's been documenting advocacy transportation for over 15 years and produced nearly 850 Streetfilms since 2005, which have been viewed cumulatively at least 13 million times. His work has been featured in thousands of written articles, blogs and broadcast television media. He has spoken at over 100 events worldwide.
With no formal video training or education in an urban planning field, Clarence attributes much of his accumulated knowledge to never holding a driver’s license. 99% of all footage he shoots is by bike, foot, train, or bus, which gives his filmmaking a unique, see-it-as-it-happens feel. His favorite Streetfilms are Bogotá's Ciclovia, Groningen: The World’s Cycling City and Portland’s Intersection Repair.
He loves living in Jackson Heights, Queens with his wife Fátima, and his young son Clarence, III, whom he’s excited to watch grow up with diverse, exciting transportation options and fewer cars thanks to his hard work.